Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Nintendo will be releasing a new revision of its popular 3DSXL handheld game console. Imaginatively titled the “new 3DSXL,” the new hardware features improved “glasses-less” 3D technology, a second analog stick and a host of other improvements, including some better processing guts to push Mario and the gang even faster than before....

No one knows how to shake up fans like Marvel Comics, and let me tell you: as a guy that hangs out at my local comic shop, last week’s Marvel news has the comic nerd world all a-buzz. In a nut-shell, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and a horde of current Marvel creators are blowing up their Universe as...

First created in Italy in 1555, the modern four-string bowed violin is arguably the world’s oldest continuously used musical instrument. It’s been played in every musical tradition from Baroque to Bluegrass. In the past 457 years, there have been thousands of violin makers in dozens of countries. The instruments are pervasive; chances are good that you or someone...

Many advanced collectors of early American glass bottles will tell you the category they first started collecting was ink bottles. Their diminutive size and alluring colors and shapes catch the eye of anyone with an appreciation for detail and a fascination with the early glass-blowing trade as it developed on this continent. For a beginner collector, or an...

As the growing interest in Mid-Century Modern collectibles continues to sweep through many parts of the U.S., furniture and decorative arts from the 1950s and 1960s are being displayed in more and more living rooms and dens. The kitchen is a popular place to showcase retro items as well, as aqua appliances, atomic wall clocks and chrome storage...

Sotheby’s won a lawsuit in which the plaintiff accused the premier London auction house to vastly undervaluing a painting that later turned out to be Caravaggio’s “The Cardsharps.” Sotheby’s experts had determined the painting to be an apparent copy by a Caravaggio disciple. From Artnews: Lancelot William Thwaytes inherited “The Cardsharps,” an apparent copy by one of Caravaggio’s...

Most traditional furniture hardware is brass or brass looking, but that covers a multitude of sins. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and is a nonferrous (no iron or steel) metal. Brass that is 70-percent copper is known as bright brass or high brass and shines up to be bright yellow. A higher copper content produces...

What do you do when presented with 40 cases of collectible toys? Why, you sell about 25 percent of them for a down payment on a house and squirrel away the rest for a rainy day, of course. This is exactly what my friend Erik did when his mother gave him three dozen unopened cases of vintage Hot...

In my most exciting historic podcast, I am on location at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for the Reveal Ceremony of the famed Paul Revere-Samuel Adams Time Capsule with Dan Sullivan of gemr.com. Plus, a phone interview with the woman who opened the box, Pam Hatchfield, who is Head of Objects Conservation at the MFA. Hatchfield is...

ATLANTA, Ga. – WorthPoint.com, the Internet’s largest resource for identifying and finding the value of subscribers’ art, antiques and collectibles, has announced that Antoine Lyseight has been promoted to the position of Chief Technology Officer. Lyseight has been with WorthPoint since September of 2012 and has been responsible for the company’s Software Development, Product Development, Dev Ops and...